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The Army Foreign Area Officer Program is a single-track FAO program managed by G-35, SSF, which is the Strategic Leadership Division. It is by far the largest and oldest FAO program of the Services. The Proponent Office is responsible for establishing policy guidance and FAO career field development as well as establishing specific programs focused on the accession, training, education, distribution, utilization, deployment, and separation of FAOs. Currently, there are 1,257 Army FAOs either in training or fully qualified.

Army FAOs are categorized by areas of concentration that correspond with their respective military occupational specialty, further grouped in scope by functional areas. Army FAOs are divided into nine categories of regional areas of expertise and language skills:[2]

The International Affairs Officer Program replaced the FAO and International Relations Officer Program in the Marine Corps in 2000, which is an umbrella program that governs two separate, but interrelated military occupational specialty: the Foreign Area Officer (994x) and the Regional Affairs Officer (982x) designations. Much like the USAF dual-track system, RAOs are basically FAOs without local language skills. There are approximately 280 FAOs and 80 RAOs in the Marine Corps, distributed amongst the following specialties:[3]

The Navy FAO Branch is a restricted line community of the Navy.[4] The Navy has approximately 350 FAOs either fully qualified or in training. The community is expected to achieve 400 officers by 2019. As with the Army, the Navy has a single-track system, where officers from other Navy communities transfer over to Foreign Area Officer permanently. Navy FAOs are assigned the 1710 designator.

The International Affairs Specialist Program is the Air Force component, and encompasses two officer types: the Regional Affairs Strategist and Political-Military Affairs Strategist. Both tracks remain under the Air Force Specialty Code 16: 16F for RAS and 16P for PAS. PAS development begins in conjunction with Intermediate Developmental Education, and officers serve in similar positions as RAS officers do, but perform duties that require a broad knowledge of political-military affairs rather than regional expertise with foreign language skills.[5] RAS officers are distributed amongst the following subcategories:[6]

Acceptance into the FAO programs typically requires at least 7–10 years of commissioned service, since most FAO positions are designated for that of a field-grade officer (Marines being the exception, who only require 3 years). The FAO accession process is lengthy process and requires meticulous review of every candidate applying. While all DoD branches are in the process of expanding their FAO (or FAO equivalent) Programs, FAO accession remains one of the most highly competitive processes of the US military.[citation needed] On average, more than eight candidates compete for every single FAO slot available. Generally speaking, applicants must have at a minimum the following:

FAO training varies amongst all four DoD branches, but usually takes a minimum of 3–5 years before FAOs can utilize their skills in an operational capacity, depending upon the qualifications of the candidate at the time of accession.

Foreign Area Officer Orientation Course, a 3-day introductory course into their career path.

6 - 15 months of basic language training, depending upon the language(s) selected and the level of difficulty, at either the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey or Defense Language Institute-Washington.

6-12 months conducting in-country training for area familiarization, language enrichment, professional development in the target region, etc.

Subsequent FAO tours.

A long road exists between accession and full FAO qualification. It takes between 3–5 years of training, education, and actual FAO tour performance before FAO trainees are ever even considered for full designation and qualification as an FAO. Standard requirements of fully qualified FAOs generally include the following:

Advanced degree(s) with a regional focus.

Defense Language Proficiency Test score of 2 in listening and 2 in reading, and a goal of 1 in speaking.

The Defense Language Office ensures a strategic focus on meeting present and future requirements for language and regional expertise, among military and civilian employees. This office's main responsibilities are to oversee and manage the implementation of a comprehensive Department-wide Language Transformation Roadmap; identify policy, procedural, and resource needs associated with providing needed language capability; oversee policy regarding the development, management, and utilization of civilian employees and members of the Armed Forces; and conduct research and analyze studies, reports, and lessons learned from the Global War on Terrorism and current military operations as they pertain to language and regional area expertise.